If this guy can do it in Brooklyn in only a 800 square foot backyard, anyone can if they really try...here's a link to the article. Very costly..but I think it could be done cheaper...

The magazine was funding part of the experiment. I, too, think it could be done much more cheaply. But growing on contaminated soil isn't cheap, either.

And I wonder how much gardening experience he had? There's more to gardening than just planting seeds and harvesting the crop.

Sue

I have heard of "eating local", but locavore is a new one on me. Before I started reading the article, I had no clue what it was going to be about, but curiosity got the better of me.

We started eating local as much as possible and found to our surprise that we had a local farmer's market less than a mile down the road. One of the farmers selling there said that they can make something like 60% more profit selling directly to the consumer... Actually he said, "Selling to the eater", which cracked me up a bit.

Regarding producing your own food, especially where livestock is concerned, I think cheaper is going to depend on where you live, but I believe you're right for the most part. I would have liked to see a cost analysis, but it was a really short article.

If he had the space to let the chickens and rabbits "range" and find some of their own food it might have helped out quite a bit. I'm betting he was buying all of the feed himself. Having ducks that were just eating and not meant to be eaten was probably costing a little of that extra cash as well.

Living in the city, he should have thought about rats, pigeons and squirrels as they could be free range stock. Kidding LOL

8-16 hours a day for 800 sq feet???????

City slickers!

LOL

That's a very good point. I wonder how much research he did before setting out on this experiment. I can understand an initial investment of that kind of time, making sure the soil is up to par, building chicken and rabbit coops, and so on, but after that...

My grandfather took care of a garden magnitudes larger than 800' sq, managed a small bit of livestock, and he rarely worked more than 9 hours a day. Not to mention that he was 60+ at the time.

Granted, my grandfather grew up on a farm, and knowing how to do some things efficiently is going to help, but 16hrs a day for a starter? Maybe that's in "New York Minutes". LOL

A little more info on this story can be found here, including a diagram of the backyard experiment. And when I say a little, I mean a little...

And yes, I frequent a site called "Treehugger". No smart alec comments, please. LOL

City slicker indead, 16 hours a day and spent ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in a month. Someone must have sold him gold plated chicken poop.

I have to wonder about a slaughtering station within site (or sound) of some of the egg-laying chicken coops and rabbit hutches...

I think your link is busted. Or it has been overwhelmed.

Until I can see more details, I'm not sure what he was doing. $120/meal? It sounds like a lot of that was in livestock loss. Either he had no clue (probably) or he was set up (not sabotaged, just give bad advise or otherwise boned by someone- the localvores are not without opponents), both in the garden and in the hutch.

And I'm afraid in his shoes, I'd have still eaten the ducks. Little kid doesn't like it, tough. But I'm also an ogre.

I just hopped the link with no problem... Might be cached in my browser though... Sorry about that!

Anyway, here is the full article from New York Magazine, and it contains a lot more detail.

Warning: The article is Rated R, by me, for language.

At least in the detailed article, the author admits completely that it was a stunt. You also learn that with the exception of his father, who had been a potato farmer in England, he didn't have a whole lot of people around with the knowledge to pull it off. At one point, a family member who went down to see his "hothouse" in the basement, told him right off the bat that the grow lights were in the wrong place and because of this the plants were spidery and would fail, which they did.

Ah hah.

The blind leading themselves. While wearing a straight jacket. I see where the money went. While a laudable experiment, it was too much of a stunt and not enough skill behind it.